


Gilded Cage

by defeatedbyabridge



Category: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Genre: M/M, Post Finale, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 14:45:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defeatedbyabridge/pseuds/defeatedbyabridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If the final episode had gone very, very differently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gilded Cage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butyoumight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/gifts).



> Warnings: character deaths, general emo. 
> 
> The last ditch attempt made in the final episode worked, but they sacrificed much more.

"You will not stop."

"I will not," Hiromu acknowledged, even though it hadn't been a question. This wasn't all he did. He spoke. He argued. He reasoned. He threatened. 

He promised.

But when there was none of that left to him, he kept digging. Even though this wasn't, strictly speaking, even real. He kept digging away at the earth under the bars to his cage. He kept working away at the weak points, at the places where the bars met each other, at the places where they could be widened. He was mindful of the physical damage it did him only in terms of not permanently injuring himself. If he did that, he wouldn't be able to get out. 

"I will regenerate it once more while you sleep. Earlier, if I must." 

Hiromu shrugged. "I know." 

Enter stood on the other side, then, with a gesture, he walked _through_ the bars to stand next to where Hiromu knelt. Hiromu had tried that multiple times. The presence of the card inside him made no difference. Here, he was purely human, affected by physical laws, at least as much as he ever was. Only Enter had some control over physical laws. "You could merely promise to join me."

His hand was in Hiromu's hair. Hiromu didn't bother being horrified by that any more. He didn't even bother being horrified by how normal it now felt. It just... was. He had more important things to spend energy on. 

To spend Energon... why couldn't he remember? There was something... 

"I will not," Hiromu repeated. "The others. You..."

"Killed them, yes," Enter said with much patience. "Before I took you into this remnant, and began working on taking over Earth from here." 

It was almost reassuring to hear it. To be reminded of just why he was still working. 

"Ah."

He prised a small chunk of earth free, and put it with the others. 

"I could make you work with me. Given where we are, given that you are not entirely human yourself. I could remove the data that tells you to fear me, hate me, that tells you to fight me." 

"I don't fear or hate you," Hiromu said tersely. 

"....and?"

"No. Never. You wouldn't do that, anyway."

Enter's voice was as soft as his fingers in Hiromu's hair. " _Non, non,_ I would not. No mental alterations." 

Hiromu's fingers glitched again. Hiromu sighed. "Only physical, yes." 

It was kind, in a way. He'd taken damage. Enter had performed his own version of first aid. 

"I would not force you to be at my side any more than I already have. Especially as I lack sufficient power to even recreate you as you were," Enter said, deeply melancholy. 

Strange words. Very strange. Because wasn't he... 

The words drifted from his mind as Enter bent and brushed his lips against Hiromu's forehead, then stepped back out through the bars. He went back to digging, and if Enter gave a small sad sigh, Hiromu didn't hear it.


End file.
